Prawn, Leek & Lemon Risotto

I've been remiss with my blogging over the last few months - definitely not posting as regularly as I would like to, and it's been ages since I've posted anything over at I Heart Cooking Clubs.  I miss my friends and, since it's pot luck week this week, I thought I'd join in with a quick and easy Donna Hay dish that's become a bit of a favourite of mine.

Now let me preface this by saying that I've always been very firmly been of the view that a baked risotto will never be as good as a traditionally prepared version, a view that appeared to be supported by others I know who have given it a try.  I was pretty sure that as long as my backside pointed to the ground (as they say), I was never going to venture into baked risotto territory.

Well, one should never say "never".  I'd had Donna's recipe for this Prawn, Leek and Lemon Risotto bookmarked in my copy of "Fast, Fresh, Simple" for ages because I think this is such a winning flavour combination.  Donna's version is however a baked one, and I was pretty sure that I would just take those ingredients and use them in my usual stirred method for making risotto.

A couple of weeks ago though, I was really hankering for some risotto on a cold and miserable winter week night, but I had other things I needed to be doing and just didn't have the time to spare standing over a pot for 20 to 30 minutes.  So, I took a deep breath, threw caution to the wind, and made my first baked risotto.  I fully expected that without all that constant stirring my risotto wouldn't have the creaminess I was used to from my usual version, but I was surprised to find it was plenty creamy - I think a good knob of butter up front, and another one to finish with, probably helped with that, and I have the feeling that using my enamelled cast iron casserole dish also helped.

So final verdict - no deficit on the "creaminess" front, and the resulting risotto was just about as good as a stirred version.   In my mind, however, a large part of the joy of risotto comes from the sheer pleasure of standing and stirring that pot for up to half an hour - it's a great exercise in presence and mindfulness, and that matters to me a great deal, and I have the belief that it is this which translates into superior flavour rather than just the physical alchemy of stirring those starchy grains of rice around for 20 minutes.  So, yes, I think a stirred risotto will always be superior - you will taste the love that's been stirred into it in every mouthful - but for a quick mid-week fix when you have other things to get done this is a great alternative, and I loved it so much that I've made it several times since.  I hope you'll give it a try.

Prawn, Leek & Lemon Risotto Recipe
Adapted slightly from recipe by Donna Hay
from Fast, Fresh, Simple
Serves 2
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil
couple of generous knobs of butter
1/2 a leek thinly sliced
2x cloves garlic, crushed
1x lemon, zest and juice
1 cup arborio rice
2-1/2 cups vegetable stock
200g raw prawns, peeled and cleaned
large handful of flat leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F).

Put olive oil and one generous knob of butter in an ovenproof dish, which has a tight fitting lid.  Set dish over medium heat, and once the butter has melted add the leek, garlic and lemon zest to the pan.  Cook for several minutes until the leek has softened, but not browned.  Add the rice to the pan and stir constantly for a couple of minutes until all the rice is completely coated with the oil and the grains look slightly translucent around the edges.  Add half the lemon juice to the pan, and stir constantly until all the liquid has been absorbed.  Now add all the stock to the pan, remove from the heat and cover tightly.

Place pan in the preheated oven and cook for 25 minutes.  Remove from the oven, and set the pan over medium heat again.  If all the liquid has already been absorbed, add a ladleful of hot water to the pan along with the prawns.  Stir constantly until the prawns are cooked through - about 4 or 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat, stir in the other generous knob of butter, the remaining lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper.  Cover and allow to stand for five minutes for all the flavours to infuse, and then serve immediately.

If you would like to get to know Donna Hay a little better, and to see all the wonderful fast and fabulous dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

Because it's been a while since I've visited some of my other friends, I'll also be sharing this post this week at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollam.

    

Baked Fish on Polenta with Chorizo Butter

Repeat after me .... "chorizo butter"!  Say it again .... "chorizo butter"!  Can you bear not to say it one more time .... "chorizo butter"!  Once chorizo butter enters your life, things can only get better - I swear.  Heck - life feels better just saying it, which is why I think you should at least repeat it several times more to yourself, before you rush to the kitchen and make it.  So, how did my new found obsession with chorizo butter begin you may wonder.

Well, as those of you who visit regularly will know, I like to play along at the Secret Recipe Club.  If that's new to you then let me explain.  The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group.  That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret.  Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out.  It's a always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and is a great way to meet and discover some new blogs.   If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

This month I was assigned to Lynsey Lou's Making Your Days Delicious, hosted by Lynsey of course.  In time-honoured fashion, Lynsey cooked her way into the heart of the love of her life, to whom she has been happily married ever since.  She learned to cook the best way possible - following her parents and grandparents around the kitchen and lending a helping hand.  Lynsey has been blogging, very prolifically I might add, since 2008 and has a recipe index which boasts hundreds of great dishes to choose from.  Normally when I start browsing my assigned blog to decide on my dish, I look first for any fish dishes, then salads and vegetable dishes.  From there I move on to sweet treats, and it can usually take me many hours of browsing and bookmarking potential recipes before I narrow it down to my final dish.  Not so this time - as is my habit, I headed straight to the fish section, whereupon the words "chorizo butter" leapt out at me, and from that moment on there was no question that Lynsey's Baked Halibut with Chorizo Butter was the dish I was going to make.  Of course, as I browsed some more there were other dishes which beckoned me - Creamy Clam Chowder,  Caribbean Jerk Salmon Bowls, and Chicken Schnitzel served with crisp apple and rocket salad, to name just a few - but there was just no getting past that chorizo butter, and the rest as they say is history.

I didn't make any changes to Lynsey's dish, other than replacing rocket with spinach and replacing the halibut with salmon.  Halibut is not a fish which is available here, so I chose salmon since it is my favourite fish.  However, to be perfectly honest, I actually found that the salmon was just a bit too rich with the polenta and sauce, so it would have been much better if I'd chosen another white fish.  Or prawns would have been another great alternative.  And as for the chorizo butter - everything I expected it to be - in fact I would have been happy with just that poured over the top of the polenta and skip the fish altogether.  Actually, I would have been happy to bathe in it!!

Baked Fish on Polenta with Chorizo Butter
Adapted from this recipe
from Lynsey Lou's Making Your Days Delicious
Serves 2
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

for the polenta
1x cup vegetable stock
1x cup water
2x bay leaves
flaky sea salt
1/2 cup instant polenta
1 tablespoon butter
freshly ground black pepper

for the fish
2x fish fillets
olive oil
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2x generous handfuls of spinach

for the chorizo butter
1x chorizo sausage, skin removed and flesh crumbled
1 tablespoon water
3-4 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Place fish fillets in a lightly greased shallow baking dish.  Drizzle fish with a little olive oil, and season generously with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Put fish into the preheated oven and bake until cooked through - around 8 to 10 minutes depending on the type of fish and thickness of the fillets.

Meanwhile place water, vegetable stock and bay leaves in a pot and bring to the boil.  Taste and season with flaky sea salt - bear in mind that polenta can be quite bland and will really soak up the flavour, so season a little more than you ordinarily might.  Once the liquid is boiling, pour the polenta into the pot in a slow but steady stream, whisking constantly.  Keep stirring until the polenta becomes the consistency of a thick porridge and starts to bubble up like a boiling mud pool.  Once it has reached the desired consistency, remove from the heat and stir in the butter.  Cover and stand in a warm place until the fish and sauce are ready.

To make the chorizo butter, place the crumbled chorizo into a cold fry pan and set it over medium heat.  Cook for around 5-8 minutes, until the sausage is golden and crispy and has released most of its oil.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the chorizo from the pan and set it aside.  Add the tablespoon of water to the pan, and then begin to whisk the butter in one tablespoon at a time, until the sauce has emulsified and thickened a little.  Remove from the heat and stir in the chorizo.

To serve, spoon polenta into the centre of a plate and top with a generous handful of spinach.  Place fish on top of the spinach, and spoon chorizo butter liberally over the top.  Serve immediately.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Burmese Chilli Prawns with Hot & Sour Asian Slaw - Salad Days # 8

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs we're exploring the theme "East Meets West", choosing Diana Henry fusion dishes with a global influence.

Living here in New Zealand, I'm no stranger to fusion food - I'm sure the same can be said for most of my "neighbours" on the Pacific Rim.  It has always fascinated me, in just about any country, the influence that its immigrants has on the local food culture.  When I was growing up, Chicken Chop Suey at the local Chinese restaurant was about as exotic as it got.  In the last 20 years, however, increasing numbers of Asian immigrants has had a huge influence on the New Zealand culinary landscape.  Previously unheard of ingredients are now readily available;  Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Malaysian, Burmese, Bangladeshi, and Indonesian restaurants abound;  and even the pantries of this nation's most unadventurous cooks would boast a bottle of soy sauce at the very least.

Looking through Diana Henry'd book A Change of Appetite, I thought her Burmese Chilli Fish with Hot & Sour Salad was the perfect dish to fit the brief.  The hot and sour salad, which is essentially an Asian take on a classic cole slaw seemed like the epitome of fusion food to me.  I made quite a few changes to the recipe ... For a start I replaced the fish with prawns, and tweaked the curry paste a little.  And I rang a few changes to the salad as well - adding in some red cabbage along with the white, and adding carrot, green papaya, cherry tomatoes, mint and peanuts to the slaw, and as I did with the curry paste I tweaked the dressing a bit.

This dish definitely had the wow factor - an absolute explosion of flavours and textures, and just enough heat to leave my lips tingling at the end of it ... in a good way.  If you like Asian flavours, I urge you to give this a try the next time you have cole slaw on your mind.

Burmese Chilli Prawns with Hot & Sour Asian Slaw Recipe
Inspired by recipe from Diana Henry
from A Change of Appetite
Serves 2 as a substantial meal

For the Burmese Chilli Prawns:
300g raw prawns, shells removed and deveined
1x clove garlic, roughly chopped
generous pinch of salt
piece of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb, grated
1/2 red chilli, roughly chopped (deseed if you like less heat)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon lime juice

For the Hot & Sour Asian Slaw:
1x cup finely shredded white cabbage
1x cup finely shredded red cabbage (plus extra leaves for serving)
1x carrot finely shredded (a julienne peeler is ideal)
1x cup finely shredded green papaya
2x radishes, thinly sliced (a mandoline works perfectly if you have one)
12x cherry tomatoes, halved (use different colours if you can)
generous handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped
large handful of roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
1/2 red chilli, roughly chopped (deseed if you like less heat)

For the dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon lime juice

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Place garlic, salt, ginger, chilli, turmeric, olive oil, sesame oil and lime juice in a mortar and pestle, and grind to a paste.  Add paste to the prawns, and toss until all the prawns are well coated in the paste.  Put prawns in a single layer in an ovenproof dish, and bake in the preheated oven until cooked through - depending on the size of your prawns this will take between 5 and 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the dressing ingredients in a small jar and shake vigorously until well combined.  Taste and then adjust to your liking - you want a good balance of sweet-sour-salty, so play around with the ingredients until you get the flavour just right.

Place all the slaw ingredients in a large bowl, drizzle liberally with the dressing, and toss gently until everything is well combined.

Serve immediately piled into red cabbage leaves, and arrange prawns on the side.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

I'm also sharing this at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays, hosted by my very lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, and at Weekend Cooking, hosted by the lovely Beth at Beth Fish Reads.

This is salad number 8 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project.   What's that you ask?  Well,  I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads.  A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year.  Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you.  I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too.  Have a favourite salad you'd like to share?  Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.  The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like.  Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to.  There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one.  Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.  Thanks for sharing your favourite salad with us.

Salad of Seafood with Tomatoes & Roasted Lemons - Salad Days # 7

Yesterday was my birthday, and of course a birthday calls for celebration food.  Staying with my salad theme this month, I had been thinking along the lines of perhaps a duck and crispy noodle salad.  But then, my lovely friend Martine, who knows me so well, gave me a couple of crayfish tails.  If you're a seafood lover, you will know that few birthday gifts can rate as highly as crayfish tails!

I already had some scallops on hand and some prawns, so there was no doubt there was a substantial seafood salad in the making.

The crayfish and prawns were lightly poached until just cooked through - take care not to overcook them - and the scallops sauteed in a little olive oil.

Further inspiration came from this recipe from my food hero, Yotam Ottolenghi.  I just couldn't go past those roasted lemons.  One or two lemons (depending on how many people you are serving) are sliced wafer thin and blanched in boiling water for a couple of minutes.  After draining the lemons, toss them gently with a little olive oil, generous sprinkling of flaky sea salt, drizzle of honey, and a generous handful of fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped.  Spread the lemons in a single layer on a lined baking tray, and roast in an oven preheated to 160 degrees C (325 degrees F) until starting to char.

Remove lemons from the oven and toss with chopped tomatoes (use as much variety of colours and sizes as you can) and avocado.  Drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil, some roughly chopped flat leaf parsley, and a generous sprinkling of sumac.  Toss gently to combine everything.

Add seafood to the bowl, and once again toss gently to mix everything together.  Arrange on a serving platter and serve immediately.

I finished everything off with a drizzle of this Preserved Lemon Dressing.

The creamy avocados, tangy bite of the tomatoes, and caramelised lemons, along with the citrus tang of the sumac and the preserved lemon dressing compliment the sweet, delicate seafood beautifully without overpowering it.  This was definitely a dish fit for a special occasion - thanks, Martine xo

This is salad number 7 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project.   What's that you ask?  Well,  I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads.  A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year.  Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you.  I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too.  Have a favourite salad you'd like to share?  Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.  The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like.  Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to.  There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one.  Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.  Thanks for sharing your favourite salad with us.

Pink Grapefruit, Prawn & Toasted Coconut Salad

I've spent a lot of my time over the last few weeks decluttering.  Like a woman possessed, I have bit by bit gone through every room and cupboard in the house, having a major clean-out of all that stuff I've been hanging onto "just in case" it's ever needed one day.

I have spoken to my yoga students often about staying in the present, living in the moment, and yet despite that I have managed to surround myself with a whole lot of stuff because of some attachment to a time long past, or possible need in some uncertain future.  It's ridiculous, it doesn't amount to staying present, and it's all been suffocating me.

I have to say I'm surprised how long it's taken to work my way through the house, and I'm not finished yet (there's still the bathroom and kitchen cupboards) to go, but I guess I'm not going to deal with 40 years of accumulated clap-trap in five minutes.  Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I would have made an ideal candidate for "World's Greatest Hoarders", but there was a lot of stuff.

There's no doubt this is an incredibly freeing process - it's given me a real sense of lightening the load, and allowing space for change.

So what does all of this have to do with this dish?  Well, part of my decluttering process has extended to trying to give the freezer a bit of a clean-out, wherein I found a bag of prawns that needed to be used up.  Since we have another Mystery Box Challenge this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, which requires us to make a dish from anyone of our IHCC chefs using at least three of these ingredients: potatoes, buttermilk, flour, paprika, onion, leafy greens, lemon, honey, prawns, and feta - it seemed like the ideal time to use those prawns.

I'd had Diana Henry's recipe in A Change of Appetite for A Warm Salad of Pink Grapefruit, Prawns, and Toasted Coconut bookmarked for quite a while, and since with a little adaptation the recipe enabled me to use prawns, leafy greens and honey, this looked like the perfect dish to meet the mystery box challenge.

I made only very minimal changes to the recipe, briefly oven-roasting the prawns instead of pan frying them, since I always look for any opportunity I can to avoid standing over a frying pan, and for a bit of extra kick I added some red pepper flakes to the prawns while the roasted.  I also replaced sugar in the dressing with honey, and replaced groundnut oil with a combination of olive oil and sesame oil.

This made a wonderful light meal, absolutely bursting with flavour and interesting texture - soft, velvety leaves provide a cooling background to spicy prawns and the citrusy, sweet-tart burst of the grapefruit, accompanied by the crunch of the coconut, peanuts and sesame seeds.  This is definitely a dish I can see myself repeating often over the remainder of summer - I can even see it inspiring a few variations.

Pink Grapefruit, Prawn & Toasted Coconut Salad Recipe
Adapted (barely) from recipe by Diana Henry
from A Change of Appetite
Serves 2 as a light meal

for the dressing:
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil

for the salad:
2x pink grapefruit
1 cup shaved coconut from a fresh coconut
1 tablespoon olive oil
350g (12 oz) fresh prawns, shelled & deveined
red pepper flakes
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
leafy salad greens
bunch of fresh mint leaves
1x red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
large handful roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (360 degrees F).

Begin by making the dressing.  Place all the ingredients in a small jug, whisk to combine, and set aside.

Prepare the grapefruit - remove the peel and all the white pith from the grapefruit, then, working over a bowl, remove the segments by running a sharp knife between the membrane and the flesh on each side of the segment to release the segment.  Discard the membrane, set the flesh aside.

Using a hammer or the back of a heavy knife, break the coconut shell open and prise out the flesh.  Using a vegetable peeler, shave the coconut into thin slices.  Dry fry the shaved coconut in a pan over medium heat until golden.  This happens quickly, so don't leave the kitchen.

In a bowl toss together the prawns, olive oil, generous pinch of red pepper flakes, flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Spread prawns in a single layer in an ovenproof dish and roast in the preheated oven until cooked through - this only takes a few minutes.

Remove from the oven and immediately toss with the grapefruit segments, red chilli and half the dressing.

Arrange salad greens and mint on serving plates, and arrange prawns and grapefruit amongst the salad leaves.  Scatter toasted coconut, peanuts, and sesame seeds over the top, and drizzle with the remaining dressing.

Serve immediately.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

Salmon Tartare with Rye Crackers and Fennel & Citrus Salad

I don't know how things are in your household, but in mine we live on a pretty tight budget.  When you have a passion for food and "luxury" ingredients, that can be a bit challenging at times.  It doesn't mean, I believe, that you need to go without, you just need to be a bit creative about the ways in which you use those things.  In many ways this goes right to the heart of my whole philosophy about food.

Case in point ... chicken.  We only eat free range, organic chicken in our house - not just for ethical reasons, but because it also tastes a whole lot better than your average battery farmed chicken.  A free range chook will however set you back about twice as much as a cage raised bird.  With a little planning, however, we can usually manage to get three to four meals out of a chicken, and a batch of soup out of the carcass, which works out pretty budget friendly in the end.

This salmon tartare is another great way of making a luxury ingredient go a long way.  A small salmon fillet, which would normally be a single serving as a main meal, becomes a sumptuous lunch for two, or even an appetiser for four.

It's Pot Luck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, and we have the choice too cook with any one of our eleven IHCC chefs.  However, I'm still in the honeymoon phase of my relationship with our latest chef, Diana Henry, so I turned to Diana's book A Change of Appetite, where her Scandinavian inspired dish of Salmon Tartare with Pickled Cucumbers and Rye Crackers really caught my attention.

Salmon tartare is one of my favourite dishes, and I didn't make a great deal of changes to the recipe other than adding a slosh of vodka to the marinating salmon, because ... well ... just because, and leaving out the shallots as I didn't want anything to overwhelm the delicate flavour of the salmon.  A few snipped chives, had I had them, might have been nice.  In addition to the rye crackers, Diana serves this salmon tartare with a sweet and sour, pickled cucumber salad and dilled yoghurt.  I chose to make a refreshing fennel and citrus salad instead.

As far as the rye crackers go, I didn't make any changes to the recipe whatsoever, so I'm not going to reproduce the recipe in detail here for you - you'll just have to go get the book, and trust me when I tell you it is totally worth it.

These crackers are so easy to make, and so delicious, you will wonder why you've ever bought crackers in your life.  Not only that, whipping up a batch of these will run out to a fraction of the cost of buying crackers.

Rye flour, along with a little salt, sugar and baking powder are mixed with a little chilled butter until the mixture resembles damp sand, then mixed with milk to form a soft dough - using the food processor makes fast and easy work of this.

Break off golf ball sized chunks, roll in a light dusting of extra rye flour, and then roll out as thin as you possibly can into something vaguely resembling a circle.

Place crackers on a large baking sheet lined with baking parchment, prick all over with a fork, and bake in a hot oven for up to 10 minutes, until crisp and golden.  Cool on a wire rack.

These crackers are a wonderful accompaniment to the salmon, in both flavour and texture, and I think next time a little sprinkling of fennel seeds and sea salt over the crackers before baking might be a nice touch to echo the flavours in the salad.  These crackers also make a great vehicle for a variety of cheeses and chutneys.  A batch of these in your store cupboard won't last long I can promise you.

What tips do you have for stretching the budget to accommodate luxury ingredients?

Salmon Tartare Recipe
Adapted from recipe by Diana Henry
from A Change of Appetite
Click here for the free recipe card

250g (8 oz) salmon, skin and bones removed
1 tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed
juice of 1x lemon
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon vodka
freshly ground black pepper
generous handful of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Cut salmon into tiny dice, about .5cm (1/4 inch) in size, and place in a small bowl with the remaining ingredients.  Mix together gently, and chill while you make the crackers and salad, or for up to two hours.  Before serving, taste and adjust any of the seasonings according to your palate.

Fennel & Citrus Salad Recipe

1x orange, peel and all white pith removed
1x grapefruit, peel and all white pith removed
(if you can get pink grapefruit so much the better)
1x lemon, peel and all white pith removed
1x lime, peel and all white pith removed
1x fennel bulb
generous handful of fennel fronds, finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Place a sieve over a medium sized bowl.  Hold the peeled orange over the sieve to catch any pips and, using a sharp knife, cut down between the membrane and segment of fruit on each side to separate the fruit entirely from the membrane, and let the fruit segments fall into the bowl.  Squeeze the membrane over the bowl, extracting as much juice from it as you can.  Repeat with the grapefruit, the lemon and the lime, in each case also squeezing all of the juice out of the membrane.

Remove the tough outer "leaves" from the fennel bulb.  Cut it into quarters lengthwise and slice the fennel as thinly as you possibly can - a mandoline is the ideal tool for this job if you have one.

Add the shaved fennel to the citrus segments, along with the fennel fronds.  Season generously with flaky sea salt, freshly ground pepper and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Chill until you are ready to serve.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

Fricassee Salad

Just when I was thinking he couldn't surprise me any longer, Yotam Ottolenghi comes along and damn nearly blew my mind.

I've been cooking and posting Ottolenghi dishes for the last four and a half years, when I first introduced him to you with this Baked Aubergine with Saffron Yoghurt Sauce and Pomegranate.  We often hear the term "genre-bending" applied to movies, novels, works of art, and pieces of music - I'm not sure if such a term can be applied to food and cooking, but if it can then I'm sure it certainly applies here.  That was a dish unlike anything I'd eaten or cooked before, and it was for me the beginning of a whole new food journey.

Over this time, I've been stunned by the wonderful flavour and texture combinations Ottolenghi pulls together.  He's introduced me to unique ingredients, which I had never previously heard of, and which have now become part of my every day pantry staples.

Yet, even though ingredients such as harissa paste, preserved lemons, pomegranate molasses, za'atar, dried Persian limes, rose petals, and orange flower water, have all now become almost "common place" in my kitchen, the flavour punch that these ingredients deliver is anything but.

So it should have come as no surprise that this dish, adapted from Ottolenghi's book Jerusalem, completely knocked my socks off, but I was still seriously "wowed" by it.

In his preface to the recipe, Ottolenghi says that "This salad is a deconstruction of Tunisian fricassee - a fried bun stuffed with tuna, harissa, olives, anchovies, a spicy pumpkin relish, pickled lemon, cooked potato and hard boiled egg."  He remarks that the resemblance to the classic French Nicoise salad is no coincidence, "and is evidence of the interaction between French and Tunisian cuisines during the years of French occupation".

I made a few changes to the recipe, mostly for the sake of convenience.  Firstly, the original recipe called for fresh tuna to be gently poached in oil and then left to stand for 24 hours.  For ethical reasons, much as I love tuna, I choose not to eat it.  And, although, I thought this technique could just as readily be applied to a nice piece of salmon, I was after lunch in half an hour - not tomorrow.  Ottolenghi does suggest a good canned tuna as a substitute for the confiting process, but it turned out I had a nice piece of smoked mackerel on hand and decided that would make an acceptable alternative.  Ottolenghi's recipe also calls for boiling potatoes in water flavoured with plenty of turmeric, but again I was looking for something a little more instant.  Instead I brushed a flour tortilla (any flat bread would do) with a mixture of olive oil and turmeric, for that gorgeous golden colour, and sprinkled it with a little za'atar for good measure, then baked until crisp, and crumbled it into the salad.

I'm sure the original recipe is sensational, and I will definitely take the time to make it as written (subbing in some salmon for the tuna) very soon, but this shortcut version made a fast, flavourful lunch that ticked all the boxes for me.  The bold combination of harissa, anchovies, black olives, capers, and preserved lemons packed a flavour punch that delivered so much more than I expected.

If you own a copy of Jerusalem, you will know that every time you pick it up (constantly), there are a couple of recipes that you frequently tell yourself "I have to make that", and yet somehow it hasn't happened yet.  Our mandate this month at Tasting Jerusalem* group is to do just that.  I had a couple of recipes lined up and let me tell you this was not one of them.  This was one of the recipes that I've kind of just skimmed over so many times and, if it wasn't for the fact that I was looking for lunch and recognised that I had pretty much all the ingredients on hand, I probably would have done so again.  I'm ever so grateful that this recipe stopped me in my tracks - it's worth so much more than a fleeting glance, and has definitely been bookmarked by me now as one of the standout recipes in the book.  I hope you'll give this a try.

Fricassee Salad
Makes one very generous meal, or two appetisers
Adapted from recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi
from Jerusalem: A Cookbook

150-200g (5-7 oz) smoked fish, flaked into bite sized chunks
1x flour tortilla
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
za'atar
anchovies, as many as you like (I used four), roughly chopped
1 tablespoon harissa paste
capers, again as many as you like
1/4 of a preserved lemon, rind only (flesh discarded), thinly sliced
black olives, as many as you like
1x fresh lemon, zest and juice
1/2 roasted red pepper, cut into thin slices
1x boiled egg, shelled and quartered
2x generous handfuls salad greens (I used a mixture of baby spinach & cos)
1x generous handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).  Mix 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and the turmeric together to make a paste, and brush over the surface of the flour tortilla.  Sprinkle liberally with za-atar. (If you don't have za'atar, try a sprinkling of dried thyme and sesame seeds instead.)  Place on a tray and bake in the preheated oven until puffed and crispy - this will only take a few minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside to cool.  It will crisp up some more as it cools down.

Place anchovies, harissa paste, capers, black olives and preserved lemon rind in a small bowl.  Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper and a generous slosh of olive oil (I used the oil that the roasted peppers had been preserved in).  Toss together gently to combine.

Place salad greens, parsley, red peppers, and flakes of smoked fish in a large bowl.  Season with just a touch of flaky sea salt, and add the grated zest of the lemon, along with its juice.  Gently combine.

Now add the anchovy mixture to the salad bowl, and toss gently to combine everything well.  Place everything in a serving bowl.  Arrange boiled eggs over the top, and finish with another drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.  Serve immediately.

If you're interested in more great food from Ottolenghi check out Jerusalem and his other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

* Have a look also at what my "Tasting Jerusalem" friends have been doing - you'll find plenty of great inspiration. (“Tasting Jerusalem is a virtual cooking community exploring the vibrant flavors and cuisine of the Middle East through the lens of “Jerusalem: A Cookbook” by Ottolenghi and Tamimi published by Ten Speed Press. You can follow along and cook with us by subscribing to omgyummy.com, following the hashtag #TastingJrslm on Twitter and Instagram, liking our Facebook page or joining our Google+ Community and finally checking out all of our groups’ dishes on Pinterest.”)

Warm Lentil, Leek & Lemon Salad with Prawns & Roasted Tomatoes

One of the things I love about cooking is the creative process, finding inspiration in unexpected ways.

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, we're cooking with Nigel Slater, making dishes with lentils, legumes and pulses.  In Nigel's book Tender Vol. I, I came across his recipe for "Lentil soup with lemon, pancetta and mint".  Nigel describes it as being ... "One of those soups that doubles as a main course, earthy, filling and beefy.  The soup relies on the onion to add depth and body."

Sounded good enough, but enjoying warmer spring days and evenings now I was in the mood for something a little fresher than a hearty, wintery soup.  Which got me to thinking that I could put a lot of those same ingredients together in an entirely different way - some lightly sauteed leeks instead of onions, lentils, spinach and lemons - surely these same ingredients could make an interesting salad.  Replacing the pancetta in the soup with some lemony prawns would turn this salad into a substantial meal, and the rich fruitiness of some quick pan roasted tomatoes were the perfect foil to the earthy lentils and sweet prawns.

This turned out to be one of those dishes which, in its entirety, was so much greater than the sum of its parts, and was not just every bit as good as I expected it to be, but in actual fact exceeded all my expectations.  Thanks for the inspiration, Nigel.

Warm Lentil, Leek & Lemon Salad with Prawns & Roasted Tomatoes Recipe
Serves 2 as a main meal
Download the free recipe card here

2x lemons
extra virgin olive oil
1x cup Puy lentils
1x small leek, halved lengthwise & thinly sliced
red wine vinegar
flaky sea salt & freshly ground pepper
large handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
2x generous handfuls of baby spinach leaves
200g prawns, peeled & deveined
12x cherry tomatoes

Using a peeler, remove a couple of strips of peel from one of the lemons, taking care to avoid any of the white pith.  Place in a small bowl, and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  Set aside to infuse.  Grate the remaining zest from the same lemon and set aside, then juice the lemon and reserve.

Remove the peel and all the pith from the second lemon.  Place a sieve over a small bowl.  Hold the peeled lemon over the bowl and, using a sharp knife, cut down between the membrane and fruit on each side of the segment to separate it from the membrane.  Let the fruit segments fall into the sieve.  Squeeze the membrane over the bowl, extracting as much juice from it as you can.  Set aside.

Place lentils in a medium sized saucepan, cover with cold water.  Bring to the boil and cook until tender, but not mushy - about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat, drain well, and place lentils in a medium sized bowl.  Immediately add a generous splash of red wine vinegar, and a couple of good glugs of olive oil.  Season generously with flaky sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Heat a splash of olive oil in a small saute pan set over medium heat.  Add the thinly slice leeks to the pan, and sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the leeks have softened, but not browned.  Add lemon juice to the pan and stir until juice is reduced and slightly syrupy.  Remove from heat and add to the bowl of lentils, along with the lemon segments and any of their reserved juice, and flat leaf parsley.  Mix well to combine all the ingredients and set aside for all the flavours to develop.

Set a small saute pan over medium-high heat.  Add a dash of olive oil and the cherry tomatoes to the hot pan.  As soon as they sizzle and the skins start to split, add a splash or two of red wine vinegar, along with generous seasoning of flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Toss around in the pan for a moment or two, until the pan juices are syrupy.  Remove from heat and set aside.  Wipe out the pan.

Remove lemon peels from the olive oil that has been infusing, and put the lemon oil into the same pan.  Set over medium heat, and once warm, add the prawns to the pan.  Season generously, and saute until cooked through - 2 to 3 minutes on each side, depending on size.  Remove from heat, add to the lentils, and toss gently.

To serve, arrange baby spinach leaves over a serving platter.  Spoon lentil salad over the top, and finish with the roasted cherry tomatoes.

If you would like to get to know Nigel Slater a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links ...

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the delightful Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollum.

         

Chorizo & Calamari Salad with Black Olives & Pomegranate

On a stormy night a couple of weeks ago a friend and I ventured out to dinner at The Boat Shed, an iconic Nelson restaurant, perched on the edge of the harbour. We decided to Trust The Chef, and as we oooohed and aaaaahed and OMGd our way through the following six or seven dishes, my mind was somewhat relieved from worrying about the rain which was bucketing in through my dining room ceiling back home.  A couple of hours in a "dry place" savouring some heavenly food was just the distraction I needed.

One dish that really delighted us both, and which has been on my mind ever since, was a zingy squid, chorizo and chilli salad.  It reminded me a little of a seafood, fennel and lime salad from Ottolenghi The Cookbook that I'd had bookmarked for ages.

Since it's Pot Luck week this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, it seemed like a good time to spend a little time with Ottolenghi and conjure up my own version of this salad, which is a little bit Ottolenghi and a little bit Boat Shed.

This made a great dish for a light lunch.  It was quick and simple to put together, and is definitely a dish I will be making again.  Had it been a nice sunny day, this would have been lovely to enjoy al fresco, but on a wintery Sunday warmed by the heat pump it still brought back memories of squid salads in the Greek islands.

Chorizo & Calamari Salad with Black Olives & Pomegranate Recipe
Inspired by The Boat Shed and Yotam Ottolenghi
Serves 2
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

2 small fennel bulbs
generous handful of coriander
1x mild red chilli, deseeded & finely sliced
handful of black olives
extra virgin olive oil
freshly squeezed lemon juice
flaky sea salt
1x chorizo sausage, thinly sliced
400g (14 oz) cleaned calamari tubes
pomegranate seeds to finish

Trim the bases and tops off the fennel bulbs, reserving a few of the feathery fronds.  Cut the fennel in half lengthwise, and then slice them as thinly as you can - a mandolin is the ideal tool if you have one - and place in a large bowl.  Finely chop the reserved fennel fronds and add them to the bowl.  Add the roughly chopped coriander, chilli and black olives.  Drizzle over extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice to taste, and season with a little flaky sea salt, again to taste.  Set aside.

Heat a little olive oil (you won't need much) in a small pan over medium heat, and saute the chorizo sausage until browned on both sides.  Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, cut the calamari tubes into pieces about 5cm (2 inches) square, and score lightly with a sharp knife.  Toss with a little olive oil and a generous pinch of flaky sea salt.  Heat a chargrill pan over high heat (cast iron is perfect for the job) until smoking.  Grill the calamari in small batches until just done - about 1 minute on each side.  Remove from heat.

Add the calamari and chorizo to the salad.  Toss until well combined and serve immediately, garnished with a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds.

If you would like to get to know Yotam Ottolenghi a little better or any one of our other IHCC chefs, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up for Pot Luck week ...

... or check out Ottolenghi The Cookbook and Ottolenghi's other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

I'll also be sharing this post at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely, and very amusing, Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays hosted by my lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads, and at Foodie Friday hosted by Designs by Gollam.

              

Pan Fried Fish with Harissa & Rose Petals and A Taste for the Exotic

If you're one of my regular visitors, you will know that my absolute cooking hero is the highly inspirational Yotam Ottolenghi, and one of my favourite cookbooks is "Jerusalem: A Cookbook".  Good thing then that this week is Potluck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, which means that we can cook any recipe we like from any one of our ten IHCC chefs, and for me that means checking back in with Ottolenghi.  It also means reconnecting with my friends in the Tasting Jerusalem group, where our special ingredient this month is harissa.

Now, I'm not going to tell you all about harissa here or tell you how to make it - I've done all that before and you can read all about it here.  I am however going to seriously recommend you do have a go at making some though, whether you use my recipe or Ottolenghi's (which is on page 301 of Jerusalem if you happen to have it).  Yes, store bought is fine, but seriously a very small investment in ingredients, effort and time will yield a substantial quantity.  It freezes really well, and once you've used it you will always want to have some on hand.

Wondering where or how you might use it?  Then check out some of these dishes in which I've used harissa for a little inspiration ...

Harissa Marinated Tarakihi with Lemony Couscous & Tzatziki
Braised Eggs with Lamb, Tahini & Sumac
Shakshuka
or try a little Green Harissa.

Now before I move on to telling you about this dish, I want to talk a little bit about a few unusual ingredients, and some great new finds.  This is really more for the benefit of my Kiwi peeps, so everyone else please feel free to skip the next paragraph or so.  Of course, those of you who live in the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are pretty well catered for when it comes to trying to track down unusual ingredients.  In fact, just yesterday, on a flying visit to Auckland, I discovered the Persian Trading Co on Mt Eden Road, where I found dried Persian limes, barberries, and dried rose petals, ingredients I had been trying to find for a long time.  So, if you happen to live nearby, this little Aladdin's Cave of wonderful ingredients is well worth a visit.

If, however, you happen to live in the provinces, as I do, and if your tastes tend to run to the exotic, as mine do, then sourcing more unusual ingredients can be challenging.  We usually have to turn to online resources and I recently discovered a great online supplier called Global Foods Direct.  They have a fantastic selection of products (including my beloved kosher salt) that I can't get where I live, their prices are reasonable, and they were a pleasure to deal with.  They will definitely be getting a lot more orders from me!

Now back to the dish.  In his introduction to this recipe, Ottolenghi says, "This dish originates from Bizerte, the northernmost city in Africa.  It is sweet and spicy and beautifully aromatic."  He's not wrong about that.  While this is cooking your kitchen will smell amazing, a world away from the usual kind of 'fishy" cooking smells you might encounter.  Ottolenghi also suggests that this dish can be served warm or at room temperature.  By virtue of the fact that dinner in my house is presently made in the middle of the afternoon in order to capture an even half way decent photo of it (I know you can all relate), mine was indeed room temperature.  I don't think it suffered any for that though, in fact I think it probably benefited from the opportunity for all the flavours to develop and mingle in the meantime.

This dish offers an intriguing combination of flavours, which you might not normally think to put with fish.  There is of course the obvious kick of heat from the harissa, some warming spices by way of some cinnamon and cumin, acidity from vinegar balanced out with sweetness from some honey, sharp, tangy bursts of flavour from barberries (which I used in place of currants), and the exotic fragrance of rose water and rose petals.

This would be a great dish to serve for company - it's quick and simple to prepare, and yet a combination of unusual ingredients and visual appeal will make it a stand-out dish.

My changes to the recipe were minimal - just subbing in barberries for currants as I already mentioned, replacing onions with leek (as that is generally my allium of choice), increased the amount of harissa a bit, and just adjusted a few other quantities to suit.  This would serve two people as a substantial main course, with some rice or couscous and a simple spinach salad, or four as a lighter meal.

Pan Fried Fish with Harissa & Rose Petals Recipe
Adapted (slightly) from recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi
from Jerusalem:  A Cookbook
Serves 2 to 4
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

400g (14 oz) firm-fleshed, white fish (I used snapper)
2 tablespoons harissa
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
pinch of flaky sea salt

2 tablespoons olive oil
plain flour
1 leek, cut in half lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise
2 tablespoons harissa
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup water
1-1/2 tablespoons honey
rosewater (between 1 teaspoon & 1 tablespoon depending on your taste)
generous handful of barberries (or currants)
large handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 to 2 teaspoons of dried rose petals

Begin by marinating the fish.  Cut the fish into serving size portions.  In a small bowl, mix together the first measure of harissa, cumin and flaky sea salt, to make a paste, and rub it all over the fish, making sure it's well coated.  Set aside to marinate for approximately 2 hours.

Set a large, non-stick frying pan over medium heat, and add olive oil to the pan.  While the oil is heating dust the fish liberally, both sides, with flour and shake off the excess.  Add the fish to the hot pan (working in batches if necessary), and cook the fish until golden and not quite cooked through - about 2 minutes on each side.  Remove fish from the pan, retaining the oil in the pan, and set aside.

Add the sliced leeks to the pan, and saute gently, stirring from time to time, until they are completely softened - about 5 minutes.

Add the second measure of harissa to the pan, along with the vinegar, cinnamon, a generous pinch of flaky sea salt and plenty of ground black pepper.  Add the water, stir to combine everything well, reduce the heat and simmer gently until you have a fairly thick sauce - about 10 minutes.

Add the honey, rosewater and barberries to the pan and simmer for another minute or two.  Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

Return the fish to the pan, spooning some of the sauce over the top, and simmer gently for a few minutes until the fish is warmed through - add a little more water if your sauce has become too thick.

Remove from heat and sprinkle over the coriander and rose petals.  Serve with plain rice or couscous.

If you would like to get to know Yotam Ottolenghi a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Jerusalem and Ottolenghi's other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

Have a look also at what my "Tasting Jerusalem" friends have been doing - you'll find plenty of other great uses for the harissa you now have in your spice cupboard, along with other interesting ingredients as well. (“Tasting Jerusalem is a virtual cooking community exploring the vibrant flavors and cuisine of the Middle East through the lens of “Jerusalem: A Cookbook” by Ottolenghi and Tamimi published by Ten Speed Press. You can follow along and cook with us by subscribing to omgyummy.com, following the hashtag #TastingJrslm on Twitter and Instagram, liking our Facebook page or joining our Google+ Community and finally checking out all of our groups’ dishes on Pinterest.”)

I'll also be sharing this post at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely, and very amusing, Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads, and at Foodie Friday hosted by Designs by Gollam.